Wow...the things that happen when I'm gone for a couple of days. >({|8-|

My two sestertii are quite a bit earlier in this thread; nothing's changed much as far as what I said in '07 and what I would say now except for having been to the Feriae Latinae.

I continue to amaze myself with my own neutrality. If anyone would like to join a List in which Roman organisations of all kinds can be compared and contrasted, shoot me a PM requesting an invitation to [RomanEntity]. Right now it's a (very) small and quiet little group, with five members and only 74 messages since 2006. We've discussed, and will continue to discuss, Nova Roma, yes; but we've also done some brainstorming about Romanitas in the SVR, pondered what sorts of people are attracted to the neo-Roman movement, and asked ourselves what works for Roman organisations as a whole. I'd love to have a good mix of Novaromani, Sodales, Mons Aventines, SCAdians, reenactors and Ren-rats in on the powwow! I've moved in every one of these circles on my Roman walk. The interests and goals of all Romans-in-Spirit intersect far more often than they divide.

Granted, I'm still waiting for NR as an institution to realise this. The "corporate culture" over there is still rather exclusionary and exclusivist, and change comes but slowly. Most of the rest of us have known for decades that we're all in this together. To the extent that Nova Roma is the first, largest, and/or only Roman reconstructionist group most 'Netizens are likely to come in contact with, it leaves a lot of bad impressions and misimpressions of the movement as a whole. I'd gladly buy them some decent land and put up at least a meeting-hall if I had the means and if it'd mellow them out any. But I stopped working on their Wiki after being told that it was supposed to be a recruiting aid. I do wish they'd lay off the power games long enough to figure out how to tap the potential of the rest of the Citizenry. As I remarked elsewhere, in a message entitled "A New Foundation", Romans are not so common in this world that we can afford to waste them by wearing them down, shutting them up, or frustrating them beyond their capacity to bear grief.

Meanwhile the score stands at 0 Banned, 0 Moderated, and every registered Boardmember still here and still welcome. >({|:-)

I wasn't going to say anything about NR, but there was a thread here soliciting my opinion, and so I gave it. But since it seems to be getting a bit dark in tone I shall refrain from making any more comments after this post in deference to the moderators.

Both of you two above are right .. different strokes for different folks. I actually think NR had potential for the Religio Romana in ways they never realized, but since it is not my fight, I will leave them to their devices.

Romans are not so common in this world that we can afford to waste them by wearing them down, shutting them up, or frustrating them beyond their capacity to bear grief

I agree with this. That is why I am here. I think all Romanophiles who are non-exclusivist need to be part of a greater community. And so, I extend a hand of friendship to SVR. Your organization has a slightly different focus than mine, but I think the two compliment each other, and I want to be part of both.

I take the above sentiments one step further ... I think both Hellenes and Romans are close cousins in one classical brotherhood, and need to stick together. In religious terms I straddle the two worlds. I'd like to see the college on Hellenism revived to encourage more Hellenes to come here.

Salvete omnes,I realized I haven't been here for a while. Computer change, and holding a magistracy in NR will do that to you.Well, there was no new lawsuit threat this week in NR, so I found myself unexpectedly with some free time and I thought of taking a holiday here.

Unlike some others, I know exactly why I put up with all that c**p in NR. I't because I have my return anyway, by being able to meet some really nice people with the same interests as me in person.

This year I was in Rome in April and helped perform the Feriae Latinae again. Then last weekend NR Pannonia took part in a big festival in Budapest, where we provided a roman fashion show, a roma, marriage, a trial, and we performed a sacrifice to various deities to commemorate the 2000 years of Pannonia.Tomorrow we pannonians meet again, as we are going to a small museum near Budapest, and we have a brand-new citizen who joined us last Sunday.

For the Floralia festival last weekend we were joined by Petronius Dexter form Paris, and Apollonius Cordus from London, and we enjoyed speaking latin for hours on end.

This is what makes it worthwile!

If SVR could provide half of the occasions to meet in person that NR does, I would consider being less active in NR, but as it is NR has no rivals so far.

Ursus, I found you initiative of a new Alexandria laudable, but it's very annoying to see that you didn't even bother to create a grammatically correct name fo it. Your "neosalexandria" will put off any Greek who happens to read it (plus anyone else with a basic humanistic culture).If you had bothered to ask, anyone could have told you it's Nea Alexandria.

The site founder for NA admitted his grammatical mistake regarding the site name. Nonetheless, it's a nice place full of cordial, pleasant people who do a wide variety of practical things for the gods of their understanding. They don't descend into bitter, condescending anality --- unlike some other places I know.

Re: Neosalexandria, the SVR doesn't score any brag-points either. "Societas Via Romana" = 'Society of the Roman Way'...? We should have been "Societas Viae Romanae" if that's what we wanted to say. A couple of years ago when we moved to our present server, I asked the then-Curatores whether we ought to take the chance to adopt a grammatically-correct domain name. We ended up deciding that we were "The Roman Way Society" instead and keeping the original name. Still... >({|:-\

Even as far back as my tenure there, many Nova Romans were sure the place would be much more congenial if they held more face-to-face gatherings. I sometimes wonder if the mean-spiritedness I experienced could have developed if I'd gotten to meet more of the early magistrates in person? I like a lot of what they've got going on the Provincial and local levels. There's a sweet little oppidum in southern Arizona that I might just visit if I happen to be in that neck of the cactus-woods. If there were a lot more of what Livia gets to do and a lot less of the Late-Republican political simulation...sigh. I don't see the appeal of the latter at all. It's a wonder they've survived themselves so long.

My apologies to our newer members and guests that we seem to be discussing Nova Roma and little else of late. This particular topic is a good place for it; but it's been bleeding into other discussions as well, to the detriment of those discussions. Once we lose our sense of community, a community of Romans-in-Spirit--especially, once we start sniping at each other about NR BS--we really *won't* have anything to offer new and questing Romans that isn't already being done more and better elsewhere.

Salve Mari,interesting: I always thought this was "the roman society and way". A comma would be missing, but the name can make perfect grammatical sense this way. It never occurred to me that it was meant to mean something else.